Throughout the time that I have been working on ships in bottles, which is just under three years now, I have always pushed myself to take the traditional, often static model, a step further towards playing a more active role within the realm of a bottle. My bottles need to tell a story, so that the viewers themselves can take a more active role in observing what is passing within a bottle and connect with it emotionally.

So, I was excited when last summer, I was requested to develop a scene from the movie “Jaws,” in a bottle. As I began to think of the movie, many scenes of the 1975 thriller started flashing through my mind, and I even shivered at the idea of recreating the massive man-eater that would go in the bottle. I had seen the movie when I was a teenager and still to this day have moments of silly fear when I go for a swim at the beach, imagining that a killer shark may be lurking not far off. So, my ultimate goal became how could I literally bottle up all those emotions, along with the overall scene that was to go in the bottle.

I soon went through the task of watching the movie once more, and though outdated and lacking the special effects of modern film, the ominous theme song and the suspense leading to the appearance of the great white, still makes my heart skip a beat. After discussing the bottle with the customer and proposing many possible scenes, he came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to choose only one scene. Instead I would build one scene that combined the many moments leading up to a scary point within the movie. The police chief, Brody, is preparing to shoot the scuba tank in the mouth of the shark, which in the movie leads to the explosive death of the man-eater. Hooper, the oceanographer, is in the “shark-proof” cage preparing to be lowered into the water, which is moments before the shark destroys the cage and nearly eats him. And finally, Quint, the shark hunter, is throwing chum into the water to attract the shark who would be harpooned many times with trailing yellow barrels.

The scale of the ship was a little larger than I typically work at, which posed some advantages and disadvantages. Overall she was about 5 ¾ inches long (approx. 145mm), allowing me to add a large amount of detail at a more realistic level, however, the boat became so large that it had to be inserted through the bottle in three separate sections with additional work necessary on the interior.

Figuring out how I would break the boat up into pieces that would pass through the neck was a challenge, but I eventually decided on slicing the hull down the middle vertically and attaching the walls of the cabin to the hull. The cabin roof, rear bulkhead, and fore cabin section would all be one piece that would just barely squeeze through the neck of the bottle.

The bottle is a 4 liter pharmaceutical bottle which I found at the flea market. It was the perfect size to allow me to display the entire body of the man eating shark fiercely swimming towards the“Orca,” and the width of the bottle was also substantial enough that I could sit the boat at an angle, making the overall scene much more appealing.

The boat itself was carved from basswood and three small dowels inserted into the cut face between the two hulls aided in reconstruction within the bottle. The cabin was constructed from different woods to suit paint or varnish. The interior of the cabin is open allowing light to pass through the windows and provide an interior dimension. When connecting the cabin roof to the hull, I simply pushed the piece down into place, the port and starboard walls holding it from sliding forward and aft and the cockpit walls hold it from sliding side to side. I admit, the overall construction of the cabin roof was difficult and lots of readjusting and super glue was used the hold the fragile pieces together.

On board are a multitude of details from harpoons on each cabin side, a ladder, and life rings all made of wire , yellow barrels turned from bamboo skewers, a smoke stack, a tiny wooden fishing chair, and even a fishing rod whose line actually passes through the eye rings which were once miniscule watch washers. The boats name is painted on the stern in a faded gold leaf fashion, and a set of jaws, dwarfed by the real predator, are hanging on the front wall of the upper deck. The “shark proof” cage, which hangs over the side of the boat from the boom, was made of wire, and is ready to be lowered into the water. The shark was sculpted from sculpey, a polymer clay, and I may have exaggerated on the size just a bit to make it a little scarier. The men are all train model figures whose bodies were altered and painted to match the tasks they were doing.

Inserting the whole scene took nearly a full day including drying time of glues and left me exhausted from keeping my patience and insanity in check; it never fails that every single line you have loose will get caught on everything! The shark was set down into the sea made of plumber’s putty, to appear as if he is coming out of the water. The shark and the boat are epoxied to the sea, and all attached pieces are securely glued with white glue or super glue. In all there were six lines to pull tight, glue, and cut after the boat was together. Other interior work included gluing the antennas upright, pressing the cage and diver just into the surface of the sea,attaching the barrels to the shark, positioning the two people on board, and adding a few seagulls, made of painted paper and glued to the interior surface of the bottle with just a tiny drop of super glue.

The stand also played an important role for the overall piece. Each side displayed a label with the words “Jaws 1975” and two of the most memorable movies lines: “you’re gonna need a bigger boat!” and “smile, you son of a bitch!”

Overall the project was a nice challenge and a great build! More importantly, I was able to produce the ship to a happy customer. I’ve also posted the building of the scene on my website, where you can more closely follow the steps along with my descriptions on how it was made; you’ll find it under new bottles on my website: www.shipinbottles.com. Enjoy!

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